Overview

A cultural turn took place in Korea during the 1990s, amid the economic prosperity driven by state-led industrialization and the collapse of the military dictatorship due to democratization movements. Cultural critiques, emerging as an alternative to social movements, proliferated to assert the freedom and autonomy of individuals against regulatory systems and institutions. The nation was hit by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and witnessed massive economic restructuring including layoffs, stakeouts, and a prevalence of contingent employment. As a result, the entire nation had to find new engines of economic growth while experiencing a creative destruction. At the center of this national transformation, Seoul has sought to recreate itself from a mega city to a global city, equipped with cutting-edge knowledge industries and infrastructures. By juxtaposing the cultural turn and cultural/creative city-making, Entrepreneurial Seoulite interrogates the formation of new citizen subjectivity, namely the enterprising self, in post-Fordist Seoul. What kinds of logic guide individuals in the engagement of new urban realities in rapidly liberalized Seoul—culturally and economically? In order to explore this query, Mihye Cho draws on Weber's concept of “the spirit of capitalism” on the formation of a new economic agency focusing on the re-configuration of meanings, and seeks to capture a transformative moment detailing when and how capitalism requests a different spirit and lifestyle of its participants. Likewise, this book approaches the enterprising self as the new spirit of post-Fordist Seoul and explores the ways in which people in Seoul internalize and negotiate this new enterprising self.

Full Product Details

9780472074167

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""Cho's book is the culmination of 20 years' work and her knowledge of the people and spaces of Hongdae is inspirational. Couple this knowledge with the way she infuses humane sensibilities in her writing, and we have a book that is really a love letter to a place of which she is obviously very fond and also a place which every reader will feel for."" -- Urban Studies Online--Harvey Neo, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore ""Urban Studies Online"" ""The author skillfully examined Hongdae with a wider theoretical framework - Post-Fordist economy and the cultural turn in Asia. This book also probes us to ask some wider questions that are not Korean specific. How should cultural policy be formulated? Should the government sponsor the development of creative industry? How should artists respond to new cultural policies?"" -- International Journal of Cultural Policy"

The author skillfully examined Hongdae with a wider theoretical framework - Post-Fordist economy and the cultural turn in Asia. This book also probes us to ask some wider questions that are not Korean specific. How should cultural policy be formulated? Should the government sponsor the development of creative industry? How should artists respond to new cultural policies? -- International Journal of Cultural Policy Cho's book is the culmination of 20 years' work and her knowledge of the people and spaces of Hongdae is inspirational. Couple this knowledge with the way she infuses humane sensibilities in her writing, and we have a book that is really a love letter to a place of which she is obviously very fond and also a place which every reader will feel for. -- Urban Studies Online--Harvey Neo, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore Urban Studies Online

The author skillfully examined Hongdae with a wider theoretical framework - Post-Fordist economy and the cultural turn in Asia. This book also probes us to ask some wider questions that are not Korean specific. How should cultural policy be formulated? Should the government sponsor the development of creative industry? How should artists respond to new cultural policies? -- International Journal of Cultural Policy Cho's book is the culmination of 20 years' work and her knowledge of the people and spaces of Hongdae is inspirational. Couple this knowledge with the way she infuses humane sensibilities in her writing, and we have a book that is really a love letter to a place of which she is obviously very fond and also a place which every reader will feel for. Given this, the book appeals to a wide spectrum of readers. As the narrative is compelling and the book written in an accessible style, even non-academics will find it of interest. -- Urban Studies

Author Information

Mihye Cho is Assistant Professor at Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available